Zooming in on NGC 4666

In this zoom sequence we start with a view of part of the constellation of Virgo, far from the plane of the Milky Way and home to the Virgo cluster of galaxies. The brilliant double star Gamma Virginis appears at the lower right and we can faintly see the galaxy NGC 4666 above the centre of the picture. This apparently insignificant oval is in fact a starburst galaxy, about 80 million light-years from Earth, in which particularly intense star formation is taking place. The final part of the sequence shows the detailed Wide Field Imager view of the galaxy and its environment.